1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a method and apparatus for selectively routing or denying connections of incoming and/or outgoing telephone calls to and between telephone equipment, and more particularly to a method and apparatus for determining priority of connections, if any, to telephone equipment at a user""s premises, and even more particularly to a method and apparatus for accessing data stored at one location in a data collection device, such as a data collection device installed on a user""s premises, using apparatus located at a remote location, such as telephone dialing apparatus located at another endpoint of a public switched telephone network (PSTN).
2. Background of the Invention
Today, it is common to use various devices in the home or office, such as telephones, telephone answering machines, faxes, and data modems, to perform specific tasks in response a telephone call. When a call is directed to a home or office, the occupant(s) are typically alerted by actuation of a ringing mechanism least once before the device performs an automatic answer function.
One area of concern in the use of this technology involves security. Should the incoming call be allowed to access the telephone equipment in the home or office? Another area of concern involves privacy. Should the parties at the home or office be alerted or disturbed before the incoming call is allowed to access the telephone equipment?
The ability to dial into a home or office without disturbing the occupants, or triggering devices such as answering machines, is extremely valuable, and many industries and uses can be contemplated. For example, there are people who wish to dial into their business for the purpose of monitoring operational aspects. And companies that provide equipment, such as weather instruments, video compression devices, etc., often wish to have remote access to the data being collected. And another large, and growing, industry is that of the utility companies.
In the utility industry, it is common practice to supply a product, such as gas, electricity, or water, to customers who are at scattered locations. A meter provided at the customer""s location registers the amount of services or consumption used by the customer. Periodically, e.g., once each month or two, a utility company employee must visit each user""s home or place of business, locate and read the meter, and record the reading. Such readings are used to determine the bill to be rendered to the customer. In order for the meter reader to gain access to the meter, he must be allowed into the home or place of business where the meter is located, and this necessitates that someone at the meter location be present at the time the meter reader visits the premises. Moreover, large labor costs are involved in hiring meter readers, meter reading itself is onerous and requires a great deal of walking and time, and it is easy for meter readers to make mistakes, and thus render an inaccurate bill to a customer.
A considerable savings in costs can thus be realized if data collection devices can be sampled automatically and the data transmitted to the provider using existing telephone lines running between provider and the locations where the data collection devices are installed.
Many of the systems known for automatically obtaining information from a remote location have been using existing common non-dedicated telephones as the communication medium for transferring the information. Such systems typically effect transfer of the information in response to a telephone call originated at another endpoint of the public switched telephone network (PSTN).
One advantage of using such non-dedicated lines is that the installation of additional communication lines is unnecessary. A benefit of transferring stored information to apparatus at the providers office pursuant to a call made by such apparatus is that a complex telephone answering system is not required at the data collecting station in order to insure that all incoming calls will be answered in an orderly and efficient manner.
Another advantage is that such a system can use selectively operable automatic devices at each of the locations where the data is being collected. However, such systems exhibit an offensive characteristic, namely the incessant ringing of the telephones in the data collecting location in response to telephone calls initiated by apparatus at another endpoint of the public switched telephone network (PSTN). Such ringing is often a most undesirable nuisance, and several techniques have been proposed to remedy this problem.
One arrangement disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. Re 26,331 to Brothman teaches the installation of special circuits at the telephone company central office that do not ring the bell in the telephones at the data-collecting end.
Another arrangement, disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,902,016 to Blouch, includes an xe2x80x9cauxiliary systemxe2x80x9d at the subscriber""s premises which automatically cuts into an incoming telephone call to prevent ringing or other actuation of the telephone bell or other signal device until an additional number or series of numbers are inputted, at which time the telephone signaling device is actuated.
Still another arrangement, disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,394,540 to Willis et al., includes a microprocessor, a telephone isolating device, a call answering device, a ring detector, an off-hook detector, a ring generator, a data transmitter-receiver device and a modem, and each day the telephone at the subscriber""s premises is isolated from the telephone lines for a predetermined data access time. Any call made to the user""s premises during the data access time is answered by this arrangement of components. A coded signal is sent out over the telephone lines by the arrangement for the purpose of determining the source of the call. If the call is from the central office, a coded reply signal is sent back and the arrangement transmits the data to the central office. If the coded reply signal is not returned, the arrangement generates ringing signals for activating the bell in the subscribers telephone. If the subscriber""s telephone is picked up at any time during the data access time, it is immediately unisolated from the telephone line.
Another system for automatically and remotely collecting information from a subscriber""s premises is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,833,618 to Verma et al. This system includes interface means for converting the collected information into data signals that can be recorded and a microprocessor for storing the signals and controlling the transmission of the information from the user""s premises to the central location only at predetermined times through a telephone call from the user""s premises.
A principal drawback to these known systems is that the telephone line at the subscriber""s premises must be isolated at predetermined times of the day so that the collected information can be accessed at that time.
Further, if the subscriber forgets the time and initiates a telephone call during that designated time period when data collection is taking place, the data collection is terminated and no further collection can take place until the next regularly scheduled data collection time period.
In addition, with any incoming call, there is an issue of whether to connect it with any of the telephone devices at the customer""s premises. Apparatus for defeating hackers, delinquents or wrong numbers is desirable.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a method and apparatus for determining priorities of incoming and outgoing telephone calls at a customer""s premises as well as rendering the customer""s telephone equipment and accessories secure from intrusion by hackers, account delinquents and unintentional intruders, while overcoming all the deficiencies and drawbacks of known similar methods and apparatus.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide a method and apparatus for remotely accessing previously collected data stored in apparatus at a subscriber""s premises without disturbing line equipment currently accessing the subscriber""s line.
Another object of the present invention to provide a method and apparatus which will selectively allow incoming telephone calls to have access to a different types of telephone usage equipment on the basis of caller ID component information associated with the incoming signals.
Still another object of the invention is to provide a method and apparatus for using caller ID information to route an incoming telephone call between conventional subscriber telephone equipment and other non-conventional phone line accessing equipment.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a method and apparatus for retrieving information stored in metering devices or other data collection devices by accessing the telephone system at the subscriber""s location, but only when an on-hook condition in the entire telephone system is detected.
Still another object of the invention is to provide a method and apparatus for detecting caller ID signal indicia in the signal train associated with an incoming call, duplicate the caller ID signal indicia, and store it in processor means for later use to actuate ringing means associated with call receiving devices targeted by the caller ID signal indicia.
These and other objects of the invention are achieved by providing a method and apparatus for controlling the routing of incoming and outgoing calls among two or more telephone circuits when all the telephones in the user""s premises are in an on-hook condition. The apparatus of the present invention includes hardware and software.
The hardware includes a housing having telephone line input connection ports, analog to digital signal conversion components, a microprocessor, and output connection ports. The hardware contains circuitry that couples the conversion components, as well as the input and output connection ports to the microprocessor.
The software comprises an algorithm embedded in the microprocessor. The algorithm determines conditions for which an incoming call can be connected (routed) to certain special equipment at an installation, or answered by conventional telephone equipment at the installation.
One feature of the invention is that the algorithm of the invention can determine that an incoming call is one which should be processed by the special equipment, and in such a case, the telephones in the installation will not ring. Another feature of the invention is that the algorithm can choose between devices connectible to the telephone line where there is a conflict between an incoming call and an apparent outgoing call.